Tony Buttler wins Royal Aeronautical Society Award

overscan (PaulMM)

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Aeronautical Heritage Specialist Group Award : Mr Tony Buttler MA AMRAeS


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Mr Buttler was educated at Prince Henry’s Grammar School, Evesham, North Birmingham Polytechnic in Perry Barr and Loughborough University. In 1974 he joined High Duty Alloys at Redditch (today Mettis Aerospace) as a metallurgist working in aluminium and titanium alloys. In 1995 he gained a Master’s in Library and Information Science and Archives at Loughborough, and since 1996 has worked as an aviation historian and lecturer. He currently has 42 major books on aviation history to his credit plus many articles for the major historical aviation magazines. Since 2017 he has been a member of the Society’s Aeronautical Heritage Specialist Group Committee. Mr Buttler’s achievements follow both stages of his career: first as a distinguished metallurgist who was involved in the testing of aluminium and titanium airframe and engine components for over 20 years; and second, he has since become an equally distinguished aviation historian whose interests cover a breathtaking range of topics, from the early biplanes that flew in the Great War to supersonic aviation after the Second World War, and beyond; not only is the breadth and scale of his books astonishing, but they cover topics that have not been researched and written about in quite such detail before.

Congratulations, Tony, and very well deserved indeed.

Your books were the catalyst for me to create this forum, which has given me a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment for the last 17 years, and meeting you in person helped kickstart my research into the P.1121 which led to writing a book. So thanks!
 
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A very well deserved award indeed. Congratulations Tony.

Tony's books certainly inspired me to begin writing and he has been enormously helpful in my own research and writing.
 
Congrats Tony!

As someone whose imagination was kindled by Project Cancelled as a kid, and who then had to trawl through Puttnam’s and other mainstream aviation books for decades looking for the ‘amazing project’ fix, your books were a dream come true!
 
Congratulations Mr Buttler

Your work set an "after and before" milestone for anyone interested in the "full story" of aircraft, stablished standard procedures and opened a broader way for many other brilliant reserchers.

Thanks!
 
Project Cancelled fired my own interest in the hidden stories of the British aviation industry, something that was sadly lacking, on the whole, in the Putnam series, good as they were for their era. Tony was then the true pioneer of the lengthy process of digging into the archives, as they opened up, and drawing together the many strands to flesh out the narrative. He well deserves the accolade and one does wonder why it took so long for him receive this recognition. Well done mate, and keep 'em coming.
 
From Tony Buttler:
I am not supposed to know who proposed me, but I do know one name and I have asked that he pass my thanks on to all of those who were involved in making the original proposal to the RAeS.

To thank everyone who has helped me over 25-30 years of research and writing would take a very long time - there are so many of you in the UK, the US and in other countries. But a stage like this does allow me to acknowledge their enormous help. However, I must mention specifically Eric Morgan, Ken Ellis, Neil Lewis, Sir George Cox and Phil Butler. So many books might never have happened if I had not been able to meet these great people.

Finally, my thanks to you all for your support. You know how much it is appreciated.
 
Mr Butler, Sir. Congratulations on an overdue recognition for your tireless work. Also for encouraging the interest of many among us. Nice to see that sometimes, good things happen to good people.
 
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